PNN – Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid unveil first electoral coalition to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, the political sphere of the Zionist regime experienced the first major development before the upcoming Knesset elections yesterday, following the announcement of an unexpected coalition between two former prime ministers, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, against Benjamin Netanyahu.
It was almost certain that the parties opposing Netanyahu, learning from the bitter experience of the defeat in 2022, would engage in “coalition building” for the upcoming elections. The implementation of this strategy began yesterday with the formation of the coalition called “Together” by Naftali Bennett, leader of the Bennett 2026 party, and Yair Lapid, leader of the Yesh Atid party.
Naftali Bennett, who has been re-entering politics since early 2025 at the head of his new party, has become the main contender to defeat current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Lapid, who is the leader of the second-largest party in the Knesset after Likud, has also faced a serious decline in popularity in recent months.
Naftali Bennett will be the leader and prime ministerial candidate of the “Together” coalition, with Lapid temporarily second in the coalition. The goal of the formation of this coalition has been stated to be to create a maximum unity between the center-right and center currents among the forces opposing Benjamin Netanyahu.
During the press conference announcing the coalition last night, Bennett announced that the coalition’s slogan would be “Zionist unity,” meaning that Lapid and Bennett will not invite Arab parties to join the coalition after the upcoming elections. However, supporters of the traditional right wing (Likud) believe that this promise will be broken again if the election results force the two men into it.
Lapid and Bennett, inviting Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of the Yashar party, stated that “we have left the door open for you.” The leaders of this coalition also claimed that with their victory over Netanyahu, the era of division in Israel would end and a unity between the religious and the secular, the north and the south, and the right and the center would be established.
The Together coalition is in fact a repetition of the previous strategy of the opposition parties to remove Netanyahu from power in 2021-2022, with the addition of the claim that the coalition will remain 100 percent Zionist and avoid agreements with Arab parties.
Yair Lapid, who entered the 2022 elections as prime minister, failed to maintain a change cabinet during the competition with Netanyahu and ceded power to Bibi. Lapid, who had won 24 seats in the 2022 elections and achieved the second-place position, has been struggling with a severe crisis in recent months, fluctuating between 5 and 7 seats in reputable polls. Naftali Bennett, who heads a party of the same name, is also fluctuating between 20 and 24 seats in the polls.
Now that the coalition is formed, a poll by Israel’s Channel 14 TV (a staunch supporter of Netanyahu) shows it will win just 20 seats, while a Walla News poll predicts it will win 27.
The Together coalition is now roughly equal in seats to Likud, and after weeks of struggle between Gadi Eisenkot and Naftali Bennett for the leadership of the opposition, at least the opposition leadership challenge will end in Bennett’s favor.
On the other hand, Lapid’s party has two important strengths for Bennett, which are part of Bennett’s motivation for agreeing to this coalition. On the one hand, Yesh Atid is currently the most structured party in the occupied territories among the parties opposing Netanyahu, and on the other hand, the government budget that will be allocated to this party for election campaigns is also over $9 million, and the budget that will be transferred to Bennett’s party is one-third of this amount.
Reactions
The alliance immediately sparked widespread reactions from leaders of other opposition parties as well as Netanyahu’s ruling coalition; Gadi Eisenkot, who has been the focus of recent interactions between Bennett and Lapid, welcomed the alliance and called it an important step towards toppling Netanyahu’s cabinet. Blue and White leader Benny Gantz also defended the move, but stressed that “true national unity will be achieved when all segments of society come together in a cabinet without boycotts and hatred.”
But the ruling faction and Netanyahu’s supporters maintained their narrative with propaganda attacks and virtual satires against the new alliance: Itamar Ben-Giver criticized the alliance by publishing an artificial intelligence image of Bennett and Lapid’s wedding ceremony under the supervision of Ahmed Tayyibi (an Arab Joint List representative). The Likud party’s Twitter account also recalled the alliance of the three by depicting Mansour Abbas, leader of the Arab Ra’em party, as a driver for two children (Lapid and Bennett).